The present invention relates to an attachment for footwear and the like, and more particularly to an ornamental attachment engaged by the shoelace and adapted to display a decorative emblem thereon.
Recently, it has become increasingly popular, especially among children, to wear and display insignias, cartoon characters, words and phrases on shirts, jackets, hats and other articles of clothing. This popularity has spurred the growth of a substantial industry supplying such ornamental items.
It has been previously proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,477 to provide ornamental attachments for use with articles of footwear. However, the article of footwear must be specially designed to include transparent pockets on its side walls to receive a decorative insert.
U.S. Pat. No. 743,924 proposes an ornamental bow attached to an article of footwear utilizing the lace thereon and a specially designed metallic body. The metallic body is used to secure the lacing without the necessity of tying the lace. Such a device would interfere with the normal tying process of the lace and does not facilitate the use of large ornament designs to be attached thereto.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel ornamental attachment for engagement with the shoelace of an article of footwear.
It is also an object to provide such an attachment which does not interfere with the normal tying and untying of the lace of the shoe and permitting the display of different emblems and other decalcomania.
Another object is to provide such an attachment which can be readily coupled to a lacing shoe without modification and which utilizes the existing lace and is readily removable or interchangeable.
A further object is to provide such an attachment which may be readily and economically fabricated and which exhibits reasonable long life.